Age of Obsidian
Time Frame Our ancestors used volcanic glass known as Obsidian wherever it was available for cutting and as spearheads from about 12,500 B.C.E. until roughly 4000 B.C.E. That isn’t hard date, though, because agriculture was discovered and the domestication of food animals accomplished beginning around 8000 B.C.E. and slowly spread across Eurasia, effectively bringing to a close the obsidian era. Significant Traits The Age of Obsidian was marked largely by small bands of nomadic and semi-nomadic people roaming the world in search of edible plants migrating herds. Where there was a steady stream of food or materials that could be traded for food, such as lakes, volcanoes, and the two inland seas that would become the Mediterranean, people occasionally managed to stay in one place, becoming points on tentative trade routes. Instances would be coastal towns or centers of obsidian deposits. There was no knowledge of the male involvement in reproduction, so instead the woman's ability to spontaneously create life was seen as a magical quality. The archeological record does not indicate that women dominated men, though. Both sexes had their respective places in society and were treated as equals. Men were appreciated for their participation in the hunt, crafts, and their protection of the tribe, while women were worshipped for their life-giving qualities and for being mothers. They gathered food as well, as they could do this while remaining close to their young. Gathering, though not as prominent in extant art, was the mainstay of their diet in the form of fruits, legumes, seeds, and nuts. Major Events In 12,500 the world was still in the last ice age. Half the planet was buried under ice, while the other endured heat waves. Vegetation was scarce in both extremes, and naturally animals had a difficult time surviving. Many didn’t survive, making the period from 12,500 until about 10,000 B.C.E. a major extinction event. The mastodon, mammoth, and giant anteater all disappeared at this time. Around 10,000, the glaciers started to recede. Some of the modern seas were formed at about this time by the rise in water levels throughout the world. When enough ice had melted a tidal wave swept over the Straits of Gibraltar and covered the land bridge that separated the east and west inland sea to form the modern Mediterranean. That's why so many myths among the Mediterranean cultures involve a great flood. The last main event of the period occurred in 8000 B.C.E., when humans discovered that the grains wheat and rice were not only edible, but provided many calories and were easily farmed along a flooding river valley. Aurochs were also domesticated, making hunting even less necessary than it had been before. These discoveries would lead to the first villages, forever changing human society and exploding its population. Religion The people of the Age of Obsidian thought of themselves as a part of the world around them and not a separate force. This manifested itself in many aspects of their thinking. The Great Goddess They perceived every tool and morsel of food as a gift. With plants, this meant that not only the fruits but often leaves, stalks, and every other piece was made use of. They were just as respectful of the animals they killed, using the bones for instruments, sinews to tie their arrow and spear heads on, the skin to clothe themselves, and so forth. They did not believe animals were stupid, to be killed and eaten as needed. Instead, they saw prey animals as willingly sacrificing themselves for people. This sacrifice demanded not only respect, but a form of worship. The gift giver was personified in the Great Goddess. She grew pregnant in autumn and gave birth to all the plants and animals humans ate during the course of the year. Knowledge of the male element was unknown until the dawn of agriculture, so this made her the supreme and only deity for them. Because humans saw themselves as integral with nature, they were better able to see the connections between plants and animals and other aspects of nature. Whereas the modern world sees the snake as deceptive, they saw it as a symbol of immortality because of its molting. Cycle of Life As a part of nature, humans did not see death as an end. As each winter plants died and were reborn, as their food was consumed only to be regenerated, so to they believed that humans lived, died, and were reborn. All life followed the same circular cycle. Because of their beliefs, they practiced excarnation, placing the recently dead on a slab of rock away from the clan and allowing scavengers to eat the flesh. Only when the corpse had been reduced to bones was the person considered fully dead. The remains were often put in a crypt, cavern, or burrowed hole - an artificial womb from which the person would eventually be born again. Language/Economics/Culture/Art/Technology/Daily Life Geography We have no way of knowing what the people who lived before writing called themselves or the places they lived in. To give the universe an appropriate feel, I have researched all the prehistoric peoples who lived in this era, learned their most noteworthy hunting animal, trait, or craft, and then named them by that craft in whatever language we believe was common during that period. As with any nomadic society, the land these people lived in has been given the same name as the people themselves. *Acayl *Biainili *Erdian Lur *Euskal *Gizajale *K’èpù *Se'um *Sukarri **LAKES **RIVERS **SEAS *Nairi *Uzzan *Xian Culture The period was noteworthy in most of the world for its nomadic nature; up until 8,000 B.C.E. only groups fortunate enough to have found a valuable natural resource such as obsidian or fish were able to settle. All other persons migrated regularly. Some tribes followed herds while others would move from valley to valley exhausting the local flora and fauna as they went. This did not impede the human need for creativity. Recovered tools have been found with basic symbols on them representing animals, water, fertility, and other basics to survival. Great goddess statuettes were old at this point, and sites from this period consistently have sculpted female forms with oversized breasts and butts representing a fertile woman specifically and nature in a more general fashion. Another aspect of the period was. In ancient polytheism, animals were used to explain human emotions. In modern culture, the animal’s impact on humans is how they are identified. Back then, animals were respected and valued for their contribution to the circle of life. Animals in prehistoric civilizations were actually believed to be equal to the humans they shared the planet. Though during most of this period humans lived in groups numbering no more than perhaps twenty, the did have a philosophy of the world and an understanding of their place in it. This involved the concepts of the Great Goddess, life-death-rebirth, and a deep respect for nature. Language Religion Astronomy was studied long before civilizations. Nature of Constellations The constellations were seen as markers of cycles. Every year the twelve constellations rotated through a complete cycle, and every 15,000 years they all rotated through a larger one. Meaning The constellations begin with Gemini, and are part of a story of which the Gilgamesh epic has the best extant version. Origins Early humans saw that every spring plants seemed to be born only to mature and die. Similarly, they saw that herds seemed to replenish. As they could see that plants grew from the earth, they extrapolated that animals must as well. They personified the earth as a woman. Like the human woman they could see, she spontaneously became pregnant and gave birth to the various life forms humans came across. Worship Not much is known about any specific practices, and likely they varied across the world. However, there have been many sculptures of women possessing oversized breasts and butts found all over Eurasia. Likely these were visual reminders of the Great Goddess. Legacy There is a mother goddess in nearly every religion on Earth, most of them spontaneously generated the first generation of sentient life. Hunting - The act of tracking, trapping/cornering/manipulating, killing, skinning, and eating an animal Art Paleolithic and Mesolithic humans believed that animals had equal intelligence to their own and further believed that it was as wrong to simply kill a game animal as it was to kill each other. Because of this, hunting became a ritual. *Cave Paintings: The process of creating and reliving these paintings had several meanings. It was a preparation for the tribe. It was a remembrance of the gift of life the animals were supplying them with in allowing themselves to be killed. Finally, the ceremony was meant as an appreciation and as a means of convincing the animals to allow themselves to be killed. *The hunt: Much like American Indians, it appears that they killed only what they needed to survive. *Using the carcass: Again like the American Indians, every part of an animal would be used. The meat would be eaten and the skin used for furs. The bones had a wide variety of uses as tools, sinews might be used for affixing arrowheads to spears. Around 8,000 B.C.E. humans began to develop agriculture, and with it the notion that there was a second element involved in reproduction. The result was the development of a male element in the religion as well. As the more recent and less established of the duo, the male was first a son, but later the lover of Mother Earth and the father of all life. This new development imitated the cycle and limitations of the human male, who developed into potency only to weaken immediately. In time, the male was conceived once a year at the autumn equinox. He grew to youth in the spring in order to impregnate mother earth, aged during the summer, and died in the autumn only to be replaced by a new male partner for Mother Earth. The new arrangement gave men a measure of the magic of life that had traditionally gone to women alone, but did leave men in an inferior position in that respect. The daily lives of paleolithic humans were filled with symbolism. They saw it in the animals they hunted, the tools they used, the weather, the stars, the plants, Animals Humans of the period had no fables and axioms, instead all they had was the natural world. Observing life, death, sex, hunting, suckling, and grazing was how they learned. In the shedding of a snake's skin they saw immortality, and in immortality they saw great wisdom. In vultures they saw purifiers; carrion birds stripped the last remnants of one life away from an animal so that it could begin its path toward reincarnation in another. Good and Evil The animal world has no evil. Instead, there is only need. A tiger needs to eat, so when he comes across young rabbits he kills them. By the same thinking a crocodile might kill an unsuspecting human because it is hungry. Humans did not understand the concept of good and evil, either, because it was not a part of their daily lives. *Alligator: As a symbol of water it also represented fertility. *Almond: Virility, when crushed resembles semen. *Apple: A symbol of immortality. *Bear: Storms. *Black: Representing earth, it was life and fertility. *Blood: As the essense of life, blood represented life. *Bone: Representing the state of being fully dead. Only when all the flesh was gone. *Bull: A symbol of masculinity it was also a symbol of female fertility because of its horns' shape. *Butterfly: Its genesis represented reincarnation. *Cat: A lunar figure because of its female qualities. *Cave: Because of its resemblance to the womb, birth and rebirth. *Cedar: Because of its life-span it represents longevity. *Cow: Because their milk was central to early civilized man, they symbolized female fertility and motherhood. *Coyote: A trickster. *Crow: A trickster. *Dirt: As the source of plants, dirt was fertility. *Dog: Guards the dead, protects the living. *Dove: Purity *Eagle: As a dominant face of the air and eagle symbolized the sun. *Egg: As the source of life, it symbolized life. *Evergreen: Long life because it never loses its color. *Feng-Huang: Represents rebirth. *Fish: As a denizen of the water it represents both water and fertility. *Garlic: Virginity. *Green: As the color plants it represents life. *Hawk: As a dominant face of the air and eagle symbolized the sun. *Lion: Because of its color and mane it represented the sun. *Moon: Because its cycle resembled a woman's it was a woman's symbol. *Nine: As the triple of three it was even more lucky. *Oak: A long-living, stable tree it symbolized strength and long life. *Peacock: It's many eyes symbolized fertility. *Pentagram: Five is a perfect number, symbol represents immortality. *Phoenix: Rebirth *Pig: Because of its size the animal represents fertility and motherhood. *Pomegranate: Its many seeds symbolized fertility. *Porcupine: A solar figure *Quetzal: A representation of rebirth. *Ram: Because the horns resemble a partial moon this is a feminine symbol. *Raven: Purifier because of its habit of eating the diseased dead. *Redwood: As a long-living tree it represented immortality. *Red: As the color of blood, red represented life. *Red Ochre: The red symbolized menstrual blood. It is a naturally found mixture of sand and hematite which was used in conjunction with death and caves. *Scorpion: Death. *Seven: The number of visible celestial bodies. *Simurgh: Rebirth. *Snake: Immortality through regeneration and the shedding of skin. *Sun: As the source of life it was a symbol of life and regeneration. *Tomb: Because of its resemblance to the womb, birth and rebirth. *Three: Number of months in a season, the number of full moon days. *Vulture: A purifier symbol. *Water: As a source of all life it represented life. *White: As the color of bones it represented death and purity. Technology During the Age of Ice, people had been forced to survive on gathering and hunting, and because of their primitive tools they hadn't been able to make life much easier for themselves. The invention of the awl, hand axe, and needle made it easier to produce clothes. Bolas, the Bow and Arrow, the Fish Hook, Harpoon, Microlith, Net, and the Spear Thrower made hunting easier, while Pressure Flaking and Scraping made it possible to create the new tools. No one knows exactly when they started, but the people of the Age of Obsidian were the first to use a Lunar Calendar to mark time. For them, thirteen lunar months (361 days) marked a full year. *Equinoxes and Solstices *Lunar Calendar *Matriliny *Seasonal Gatherings CLOTHING From the moment we had the tools, humans made clothes. They were mainly used to keep ourselves warm and protected from the elements, but we also learned we could fashion pouches and bags out of them. *Awl *Hand Axe *Needle GATHERING The finding of nuts, berries, legumes, and any other edibles was primarily tasked to the women, whose job of childrearer prevented them from moving too far from the group. *Escorts *Paleolithic Farming HUNTING Often as much scavenging as killing, hunting involved a level of communication and highly developed weapons that other hominids did not possess. Homo sapiens' ability to communicate was one of the key reasons why we survived the ice age to become the dominant life on the planet while larger and more durable species like the Neanderthals either intermarried with us or died off. *Bolas *Bow and Arrow *Fish Hook *Harpoon *Microlith *Net *Spears *Spear Thrower TOOL-MAKING Once the idea of forcing sharp edges onto rocks came around, humans found progressively sharper and harder rocks along with better edges to make spears out of. The result was smaller, more durable and better-edged edges than had ever been seen before. *Obsidian *Pressure Flaking *Scraping TRADING Accomplished whenever two or more tribes met, trading was the best time to find a mate, exchange goods, and spread ideas. *Lunar Calendar *Matriliny *Seasonal Gatherings *Trading Vessel Art Art began as an expression of the world around us - animals, plants, and heavenly bodies. Their participation in the cycle of life was appreciated, respected, and integrated into a person's daily life. This way of thinking is represented by Carvings, Cave Paintings, the sculpting of Venus Figurines, and their use of Symbolism. The prehistoric people also saw similarities between reproduction in nature and a woman's fertility, both taking on a religious significance. Economics There is no records for the period and so we have no idea of what items were of what value. All we really know are what they had and what might have been valued. Objects * Copper, Obsidian, Clothing, Jewelry Clothing * Fish and Nuts Tools * Spearheads, hand axe, fish hook Education A basic part of everyday life in the Age of Ice was learning of skills from those around you, a person's clan. It was an informal process, without a directed teacher or a focused curriculum, but it did allow the next generation to learn the skills of the last one. Hunting Done mainly by men in adulthood and not central to life, hunting was also done by women who did not have children to nurse. Hunting was taught by going out with other hunters and learning firsthand. Premenstrual girls and older women with no small children would go with the men. Use of the Animal Learning how every bone, tendon, and organ of an animal could be used for the improvement of the tribe was best learned by both sexes. Men and women of the tribe would partake in teaching and applying that knowledge. Craftsmanship Taking unusual or shiny stones and decorating them with animal or abstract designs was a learned behavior for both sexes. Motherhood Daughters were taught from early on how to care for siblings under their mothers' eye. This would prepare them for motherhood and served as additional protection for the children against predators.